Folding swabs, folding cards and other types of folding disposable applicators for dispensing liquids are known. Examples of these applicators may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,369,267 to Friedland, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,910 to LaRosa; U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,409 to DeVries; U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,013 to Kaufman; U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,574 to Redmond, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,400 to Hoyt, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,409 to Hamilton, et al.; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2005/0047846 to Narang, et al.; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2006/0283727 to Nelson, et al.
These disposable applicators provide advantages in dispensing and are generally considered to be economical for dispensing small quantities of liquids such as, for example, hand sanitizer and then discarded after a single use. However, these applicators have not gained acceptance for dispensing and applying relatively larger volumes of medical liquids, particularly surgical prep solutions. One problem with these disposable applicators is they are designed for dispensing small quantities of liquids. Typical amounts of liquid are less than 0.5 milliliters. These current conventional designs are configured to be grasped between two or three fingers. Some of the current conventional designs also disclose a swab, felt or foam applicator tip to aid in application of the dispensed liquid.
While some of the current, conventional designs indicate they can be provided in various sizes, scaling up these designs to handle relatively larger volumes of liquids such as, for example, surgical prep solutions would be unsatisfactory. For example, finger griping would become problematic with a larger article both because of the awkwardness of holding the larger applicator with the fingers and the increased weight of the larger quantity of liquid. These large volumes of liquids may gush or over-saturate an applicator head causing waste or difficulty in accurately dispensing and applying a uniform quantity of liquid. Larger foam or swab applicator heads can become distorted and compressed during the folding typically needed to activate the dispenser. Distorted or compressed applicator heads may reduce the amount of liquid dispensing, reduce the control over the rate and uniformity of liquid dispensing and have a negative impact on liquid distribution. A larger card will also make it more difficult to fold the article to activate and initiate dispensing with one hand.
Accordingly, there is an unmet need for a medical liquid applicator system that holds relatively larger quantities of liquids, including but not limited to surgical prep solutions, than conventional disposable folding card-type applicators and yet is so inexpensive that it can be discarded after only a single use. There is also an unmet need for a medical liquid applicator system that holds relatively larger quantities of liquids than conventional disposable folding card-type applicators that is also easy to activate with one hand and that is also able to accurately and conveniently dispense liquids. Moreover, there is an unmet need for an applicator head assembly for use with such a medical liquid applicator system that enhances fluid flow and provides more uniform distribution of liquid.